Chessboxer2003 and MahoganyMouse Co-Champions of King of Fast Chess!

A thrilling three-game match between Chessboxer2003 and MahoganyMouse ended tied 1.5-1.5 Thursday night, making them both Champions of King of Fast Chess.

They played in the finals thanks to finishing as the top two winners of April's qualification contest. Both ChessKids earned gold memberships for all of the kids in their school club, plus $75 for themselves for chess lessons.

The match was broadcast live on ChessKid TV (archive available soon). During pre-match interviews with FunMasterMike, both ChessKids admitted to being nervous. MahoganyMouse also explained that he recently won 2-0 against Chessboxer2003 in an informal match in Fast Chess.

In game one, Chessboxer2003 made sure he would not be blanked. MahoganyMouse made the risky decision to castle queenside. The attack on White's king was too much to defend. With a queen for rook, bishop, and pawn, Chessboxer made the cool breakthrough ...c5, which allowed his e-pawn to run free.

But he still needed to avoid mate! With only seconds remaining, White attempted a last-ditch back-rank mate, to which Chessboxer2003 correctly sacrificed his orignal queen and immediately made a new one!

Game 1

The following game, Black's pieces were activated very quickly. With a pair of bishops bearing down on his position, Chessboxer2003 made the natural, but mistaken decision to castle. The problem? He had just placed his bishop on d2, and it could now be captured for free!

MahoganyMouse used the extra piece to help his attack on the second rank. He converted the win without any difficulty, thus evening the match 1-1.

Game 2

The final game was crazy! Black got much better development and looked like he would win a pinned knight early. If Chessboxer2003 had answered 9. Qe2 with 9...Qe7, he likely would have gobbled the knight and been in the driver's seat. Instead the pawn was captured, but Black still enjoyed a nice lead in development.

Much later on, a rook and pawn ending ensued, but MahoganyMouse was behind several minutes on the clock - all that early defending took up some precious time. He tried to win with an extra pawn in the ending, despite his clock ticking below 30 seconds for most of the final 20 moves!

The players both declined draw offers until the very end, when it was clear White could not make progress. After the fourth or fifth repetition of position, they both saw that a draw was the only result, making them co-champions!

Game 3

Had White captured on h4 with his king, Black would still draw, but he would have to know about something called the Philidor Position. Go learn about it now, or practice it with a similar Computer Workout.

Congratulations to both ChessKids! We plan to do another contest in the fall, which might be Fast Chess, or might be Puzzles, or even something else!